Nationally, the average office rents for $21.25 per square foot. For an office measuring 12ft x 12 ft, you might be paying over $5,000 per year! Microbusinesses and start-ups must save resources wherever they can, and renting private office space is hardly a reasonable expense when alternative, viable solutions abound.
1. Deduct Your Home Office
The perks of working from home are obvious, and if one needs further incentive, the IRS allows tax deductions for the space in your home used exclusively for work. Once you’ve calculated the percentage of your home used solely for work, you can deduct the same percentage of your rent and mortgage payments, as well as a percentage of property tax, utility and security bills, homeowners insurance, and maintenance costs.
Everyone knows that if anything, the IRS are sticklers for detail and your home office deduction is no exception. If your home office space is not used exclusively for work, you do not apply for the deduction.
2. Coworking Space
One of the newest, trendiest places for microbusinesses, self-employed entrepreneurs, and freelancers to spend their daily grind is at a coworking space, which is essentially a shared office. Rather than rent a small office, coworking spaces essentially lease desks with other considerations like WiFi, meeting rooms, and basic utilities built into the price. Aside from the hundreds of dollars you can save monthly by coworking, the community at the heart of coworking centers is an invaluable resource for networking.
3. Negotiate Your Rent
Too many tenants, residential and commercial, assume that rent is written in stone. While that may be the case with some landlords and property owners, others have decided that negotiated rent is better than unoccupied space. Prepare yourself for the negotiation by researching and comparing other nearby office rents and keep a list of excellent referrals handy. You might be surprised how reasonable and not-scary landlords can be.
4. Executive Suites
The word “executive” isn’t always synonymous with “needlessly expensive”, so don’t let it scare you away! An executive suite is similar to a coworking space, however, rental contracts require more commitment as companies are actually sub-letting instead of making month-to-month payments or buying day passes. Executive suites are commonly targeted to cater to small companies in a single industry (such as real estate), so companies still have the benefit of networking. They make a point to offer more amenities than small businesses can usually afford on their own, such as on-site mail depots or small gyms.
5. Workshifting
To put it quite simply, microbusinesses who practice “workshifting” work wherever they can find a WiFi connection on their laptops. You and your team could set up shop in a cozy cafe, a public park, a pub, or even in the food court of a shopping mall. It goes without saying that workshifting is only cut out for microbusinesses, free agents, and workers who travel frequently. It’s not without its distractions, though: how much focused work would you be able to accomplish in a bustling train station? Even still, you can’t beat the price of a cup of coffee when it comes to paying rent.
Guest contributor Rae Alton is a marketer, content specialist and shameless dork from Greensboro, North Carolina. Her nerdy musings can be tracked on her blog, Search Sunshine.
